


The Path We Took

by axolotlnerd-campcamp (axolotlNerd)



Series: Rivers And Roads [2]
Category: Camp Camp (Web Series)
Genre: Anxiety, Gen, Gwen's Roommate Is A Mess And Mood, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-22
Updated: 2019-04-22
Packaged: 2020-01-23 16:49:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,026
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18553813
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/axolotlNerd/pseuds/axolotlnerd-campcamp
Summary: Gwen and Max have fallen into a pretty good routine, and for now, things seem great. But things are a lot bigger beneath the surface, and it's not long before it's revealed.____________________________Note: This story is a sequel to another oneshot of mine,The Road Least Travelled. Please read that one before reading this!





	The Path We Took

The sun hung high in the sky, looming over the cold earth as Max waited outside his school. Normally Gwen wasn’t very late, riding into the pick-up line right when the final bell rang. But today, it had been ten minutes, and she still hadn’t shown up. **  
**

Max knew that she probably just got held up at work, but an ember of betrayal had set in his stomach. He tried to reason with himself, waiting on the bench outside the school quietly and telling himself it was fine, she had to have a reason for this and it wasn’t like she was  _that_  late anyways.

The camp-mobile rolled through the pick-up line, and Gwen rolled the passenger’s side window down. Max looked up at her, relieved and not wanting to show it.

“S’up, jackass,” she said as he approached the car. “How was school?”

She was leaned back in the driver’s seat, shoulders lax as she lifted a coffee cup to her face and took a sip. Of course he shouldn’t have been worried — this was Gwen he was talking about. Smart, casual, and reliable, as long as you’re relying on her to be ten minutes late with coffee.

“Is that a pumpkin spice Frappuccino?”

“They’re gonna be out of season soon. You bet your ass it is.” She smiled. “Seatbelt.”

Max quietly clicked it into place. “You’re fuckin’ ridiculous.”

“So you don’t want one?” She pulled a second cup out of the cupholder between them, offering it to Max. The whipped cream was fluffy and pure white, speckled with dark orange spices.

He didn’t comment as he took it.

“So how was school?” Gwen asked again.

“Fine. Isaac got beat up during recess.”

“Beat up as in pushed off the swings?”

“Beat up as in Lily throws a mean right hook.” Max smiled.

Gwen laughed. “He have it coming?”

“Yeah. Stole her phone and sold it on eBay.”

Gwen turned onto the hill as she spoke. “Christ. When I was in elementary school the biggest thing any of the kids did was spread rumours about who kissed who.” She said with a smile. “Is everyone at your school as much of an asshole as you?”

“Pretty much.” Max smiled.

Gwen laughed and shook her head. “How’d that test go?”

“The social studies one was awful, but I think I did pretty good on the math one.”

This whole scene felt strange. He wasn’t used to watching the foliage of Brimhaze Hill pass by this quickly and painlessly. He wasn’t used to someone asking him how his day had gone. It felt foreign and good.

“Nice!” And  _that_  felt new too, someone celebrating his small achievement of passing a math test. It had only been two weeks since they had made this routine, but it felt natural — and much more preferable than Max’s last one.

When they reached the bottom of the hill, Gwen turned. “How about you?” Max asked.

Gwen shrugged. “Mostly normal. Madison put in her notice at work, so we gotta hire a new cashier, and then Devon’s trying to set me up on this blind date.”

“Gross.” Not even a beat passed by before he responded.

“Har har.” Gwen replied sarcastically. “Say that to her. She refuses to let me know anything about them, is totally sure I’m gonna love them. She doesn’t even really know my type.” She laughed lightly.

“Because you’re too embarrassed to admit your type is ‘the unidentifiable thing that wandered out of the lake’?”

“Hey!” Gwen pretended to scold him. “Graggle was completely identifiable.”

“Yeah, how else would Quartermaster have been able to tell it was his son?” Max responded, and Gwen cringed.

“Yeah…” As she rounded the last corner, she slowed to a stop at the small house near the end of the street. “Alright, here’s your stop. You gonna need a ride next week?”

Max nodded as he undid his seatbelt, pulling his backpack up on his shoulders. When he reached for the handle, he slowed down, looking at his feet. He didn’t move for a second, frowning with thought.

 _Weird,_ Gwen thought.  _He doesn’t usually think about things before he does them._

“You okay?” She asked, and Max looked up.

“Yeah. Just… I’m fine. Thanks.” He shook his head and opened the car door, stepping out without another thought. “See you next week.”

With that, he was gone, closing the door before Gwen could ask him anything else.

 

Throughout the rest of her car ride home, Gwen couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong. It was like there was something heavy attached to her shoulders, pulling her back and putting a weight on her chest. For a while she shrugged it off as anxiety, but that didn’t feel right.

Things seemed as normal as they ever did. When she walked into her apartment, her roommate was laying with her face against her laptop keyboard, softly snoring with instrumental hip-hop in the background, and the living room window was wide open and letting the November wind in.

If Gwen was a hot mess, Sadie was a flaming disaster. Like a garbage can that’s caught fire. Or a tree that grew upside-down. She had scarlet red hair in a bob cut that she died about once a month, one of the only things she did just for herself — normally she was doing almost anything that would get her paid. Sadie called herself a person of many talents, but Gwen preferred to call her a “freelance everything-er”, jumping from programming to advertising to web design to almost anything else and never stopping.

“Psst.” Gwen whispered as she poked the girl in the shoulder. She was lucky her glasses had slipped off, otherwise she might have broken them laying the way she was. “You’re gonna have keyboard imprints on your face.”

Sadie hummed, blinking for a moment and then shooting up. “Sorry!” She exclaimed on instinct.

“Don’t be sorry, go to fucking sleep. In your bed, not on your computer.” Sadie had always had a problem of overworking herself. When she had first moved in with Gwen, she had a lot of problems that she buried under her workaholism — all of them coming up to the surface when she said without a hint of irony, ‘I’ll sleep when I’m dead.’

She tried to get into a more regular sleeping schedule ever since, and started taking days off.

Sadie shook her head, still gaining her bearings. She rubbed her eyes, yawning a bit as she spoke. “No, it’s fine. I should try and stay up, go to bed-”

“Just go to sleep, Sadie.” Gwen said, walking towards the living room. She shrugged her bag off her shoulder, letting it drop next to the air mattress that they kept in there to make up for a lack of a couch. “S’been a long day.”

“You too, huh?” She turned around in her chair, sitting backwards and crossing her arms on the back of it. Gwen hummed in confirmation, sitting down on the air mattress and searching for the remote. “What happened?”

Gwen shrugged. “Nothing really, just my anxiety. I think.”

“You think?”

“I mean, I guess something happened? Max just seemed weird today when I dropped him at home, it’s not really a big deal.” Gwen explained.

Sadie looked at Gwen for a moment, dark brown eyes wide with curiosity. “Gosh, I haven’t seen you so worked up since Travis happened.” She said with a laugh. “Must be serious.”

Gwen laughed. “Yeah, I guess. I dunno. He just seemed like he was thinking about something before he got out of the car, and it made me think about his family, and you know I have this awful feeling about his parents-” She trailed off, not knowing how to continue her sentence.

“I know. I do too. How about next week, you ask him? There has to be some way you can help him.” Sadie offered.

“God, if he even thinks that I think something is up, he’s gonna try ten times as hard to keep it from me.” Gwen sighed and grabbed the remote, pointing it at the TV and searching for  _Jersey Shore_ reruns. “It’s fine, I’ll figure something out. Thanks.”

Sadie nodded, turning around and looking back at her computer.

“Don’t go back to work, nerd, go to sleep!” Gwen scolded.

“Right!” Sadie said, remembering and standing up. “Right. I’ll do that.”

The red-head closed her computer and thanked Gwen before she headed off to her bedroom. Her words floated around Gwen’s head, thick and heavy, as she considered them.  _There has to be some way you can help him._

She started the episode of her show, but the words passed through her head.

 _A way to help Max,_  she wondered. She tapped her fingers against her leg. Let her gaze flicker over the television. Decided the internet would have better answers than she ever would. 

 

It wasn’t long before she gave up on her internet search, anxiety chewing on her brain the whole time, telling her that he didn’t need this, he always said he was fine it would be rude to invade anyways. But she couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong, and not even her shows could really get her mind off it.

She spent the whole day alternating between TV, Instagram, Snapchat, and being vaguely anxious, and she had almost fallen asleep when her phone buzzed in her lap, jolting her awake. When she flipped it over and didn’t recognize the number, she felt her anxiety come back full throttle, answering the call hesitantly.

“Hello?” She asked, her voice feeling foreign and not at all like herself. Like someone much more professional, like someone that made the right decisions without thinking too hard, without thinking herself out of them.

“Hey, it’s me.” The voice on the other end said, mostly casual and partly anxious.

 _“Max?”_  Gwen gasped, sitting up straight with shock. “What are you doing? It’s 11:30 at night, you should be asleep right now. Where are you even calling me from?”

Max’s voice was almost drowned out by the sound of people in the background, bass-heavy music and conversations surrounding him. “The bar on Main Street in Sulphur Springs, which reminds me, they really don’t like having kids in here and want me out as soon as possible. Listen, I know it’s late and I’m really sorry to ask but I kinda need a place to stay tonight? I know I’m 20 minutes away and I’m sorry, I wouldn’t have even bothered but it started snowing and just- You know.”

Max never sounded like that. He never sounded that quiet and apologetic, hell he never even  _apologized_  unless something had gone horribly wrong. Gwen looked at the window, looking at the small flurries of snow outside and feeling anxiety heavy in her chest.

“Jesus Christ, yeah, I’ll be there as soon as I can, what even  _happened?_  You could get  _frostbite_  out there, Max, God-” She was only nervous on behalf of the kid, but he seemed to register it as annoyance.

“Look it’s not like I wanted to get kicked out of the house-”

“You got  _kicked out?”_  Gwen exclaimed, standing up quickly. Sadie walked out tiredly from the hallway, looking at her confused and holding a coffee. Gwen didn’t even notice her, grabbing her coat and searching for her keys in the pockets. Max muttered something that was lost in the noise of the bar behind him, and Gwen continued talking. “Listen, I’ll be there as fast as I can. God, damn it, are you okay?” She cursed at herself, wishing she had done something then and there when he was stepping out of the car.

“Yes?” Max replied, not sounding quite sure. Gwen’s tone had put him on edge, and as she left her apartment she didn’t even bother putting boots or her coat on.

“God, I- I’ll be there in like 20 minutes. You can’t- Look, if you-” She couldn’t get it out, her thoughts mottling together as she got in her car and started it.

But Max interrupted her. “You know what? Don’t even fucking bother.” He sounded as venomous as he always did, his voice clipped and rising above the background noise. “If I’m such a God awful burden, just forget it.”

“No! Max, I’m-”

His voice rose up against her’s, and she could imagine the challenge in his eyes as he yelled. “I’ve dealt with this before, I’ll deal with it again, and I can do it without you! Sorry to be such a huge fucking inconvenience.”

Gwen opened her mouth to object, to explain that that was not was she was trying to say, but her phone beeped, signalling that the call had ended. She took in a deep breath, feeling a shiver down her spine as she sped out of the driveway.

 _I’ve dealt with this before,_  he’d said.

_This isn’t even his first time being kicked out of the house, is it?_

The thought didn’t need to be answered. A guilty heat settled in behind Gwen’s eyes, and she wiped away the beginnings of tears there, trying to convince herself that there would be time later to feel like a piece of shit. She’d let herself wallow in self-hate when there wasn’t 15 miles of highway ahead of her to remind her of it.

 

When she got out of her car, she was freezing, and her socks were going to be caked with mud and snow by the time she got home, but she didn’t care. She shoved passed the crowd of people outside the bar and talked to the bartender, asking him if Max was still there, and he shook his head. Instead, she asked some of the people outside the bar if they had seen where he’d gone, and a drunk girl shrugged.

“‘Lil kid, yeah, he stormed out that way. Probably went to the park.” She pointed, and Gwen thanked her as quickly as she could before running off in the direction she’d gestured.

The paths at the park were completely barren and too dark for comfort, leading her to turn on her phone’s flashlight as she called for Max. The snow had begun to stick and it was now coming down faster, a thin layer settling on the ground.

“Max?” She called, looking around. He had probably found somewhere protected from the snow, but there weren’t many places for him to have hidden, which was both a good and bad thing at the moment.

She called his name again, on the verge of breaking down, when she finally heard a response.

“Here,” he called from the space beside her, and his voice was strained and weak. Gwen whipped around, shining her flashlight and running towards him.

He had settled beneath a picnic table, sat in the mud with his legs drawn up and arms crossed on top of his knees. The makeshift shelter he’d made barely even protected him from the snow, the wind blowing snowflakes through the space between the seat and table, and his green eyes reflected the light of her flashlight like a cat’s would, untrusting but still desperate.

“Max,” Gwen said, the name coming out like a sigh of breath as she dropped to her knees in front of him. He was only wearing a loose-fitting t-shirt and pajama pants, and now that she had drawn closer she could see him shivering like a sapling in a hurricane.

She dropped her phone on the ground carelessly as she grabbed the kid, wrapping her arms around him tightly with relief. “Christ,” she sighed, and if Max leaned into the hug, she didn’t notice. “Come on. Let’s get you out of the cold.”

Normally Max would have hit her for even thinking about carrying him, but Gwen was warmer than he was alone. “What happened?” She asked, voice  low.

“I made some offhanded comment about my birthday, Alice and Greg weren’t too happy about that. Ended becoming a bigger fight than it should’ve been.” He explained.

“Birthday’s comin’ up?” Gwen asked, hoping to get his mind off things.

“Was today.” He answered, and though his demeanor didn’t change Gwen still felt guilty.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t know.” She said.

“I didn’t tell you.” Max replied. Gwen didn’t know if that was his version of ‘it’s okay’, but she’d take it for now.

She put him in the passenger’s seat, letting him put on his seatbelt as she sat down in front of the wheel and started blasting the heat. Max scooted to the edge of his seat, putting his hands in front of the vent and soaking up as much heat as he could.

For a long time, the ride was quiet. When Max had finally warmed up, hopefully without any bad bits of frostbite, he leaned back in his chair and pulled his knees up to his chest, going back to the same defensive position he’d been in before as he leaned against the car door.

“Hey, so…” Gwen began when they were about halfway through the car ride. “I’m sorry if I sounded mad over the phone. I was just worried.”

Max shrugged, and when he spoke, he sounded tired. “It’s fine. I figured, just… You know.”

“I’m glad you called me. I was a bit worried when I dropped you off today, and if you’re with me I’ll at least know you’re safe.” She said, propping herself up on her elbow as she leaned against her door.

Max laughed quietly before speaking. “Like I’d ever be safe with you at the wheel,” he joked sleepily.

Gwen chuckled, feeling her anxiety slip away as she assured herself Max wouldn’t be joking with her if he wasn’t okay. “Fair enough,” she replied, and let the car go quiet.

The snow was falling full force by the time she pulled into the parking lot in front of her apartment. “We’re here,” she said, looking over to the kid, but he didn’t even twitch.

When she picked up Max, he stirred, but didn’t complain, falling back asleep quickly. Gwen knocked on the door with her foot, knowing Sadie had woken up and would let her in. She did, and stared at Gwen and Max confused and stunned. She opened her mouth to ask for an explanation, but Gwen shushed her quietly.

“In a minute. I’m gonna get the bastard to bed.” She said, and Sadie watched her bring the kid to her room.

Gwen struggled to put him down under the covers, but when she did, he gripped them and pulled them closer to himself, hugging the comforter like he’d never had one before. Gwen put a hand on his hair, brushing it out of his face as if she might be able to see something she hadn’t before through the motion.

Instead, Max blinked, looking up at her through a vaguely angry half-lidded gaze.

“Sorry, kiddo,” she whispered, not sure if she was apologizing for what had happened or waking him up. “Go back to sleep.”

“Gwen?” His voice with thick with sleep, more vulnerable then she had ever seen him.

Gwen hummed in response. She could feel the scene being seared into her brain, his eyes practically glowing in the darkness and etched with a brand of misery she hated seeing on Max.

“Please don’t take me back there.” He said, and his voice cracked and it went against everything Max had made himself out to be.

Gwen let out a sharp exhale, hoping to play it of as a laugh and not a sob. “God, no. You’re staying here.” It was a promise she didn’t know if she could keep, but now she was too scared to imagine what could happen to him if he was anywhere else. She sat down on the side of the bed, keeping her hand on his hair. “I’ve got you, kid. You’re safe.”

Max’s gaze flickered over her, searching for the lie.

“Just get some sleep. We’ll figure things out in the morning.” Gwen promised, and Max nodded as he closed his eyes, quickly falling back asleep.

Gwen left the room quietly, leaving the door open just a crack and keeping the hallway light on.

 

Sadie listened quietly while Gwen explained everything that had happened, and stayed quiet when she had finished. Her arms were crossed and resting on the table in front of her, gaze focused on the space just in front of her arms. Her dark eyes flickered around thoughtfully, and no one could quite tell what was next.

“What are you planning on doing now?” She asked, sounding lost herself. She had a heart with far too much love in it for her to keep, she always had, and it became apparent when she saw those she cared about upset.

Gwen sighed, putting her head in her hands. “I don’t know, but I’m sure as hell not letting him go back there. No fucking way.” She’d promised, and normally she wasn’t this insistent on keeping promises but this felt bigger.

“Well, your schedule lines up with his school schedule during the week, and I can take care of him on the weekends. We’ll have to go to the police, talk with child protective services…” Sadie began to mutter, calculating in her head.

“Wait, are you serious? You’re gonna help me with this?”

“If you are, yeah!” Sadie said, looking up. “I’m not going to make you take care of a kid all by yourself, Gwen.”

Gwen looked at her for a moment, and then looked down, almost in embarrassment. “Thank you. Thank you so much, holy shit.” She laughed.

Sadie smiled. “Just go to sleep. You can take my bed, since I’m gonna be up for the night.” Gwen nodded and said her goodnites, but before she could turn in Sadie asked one more question. “You said today was his birthday, right?”

“Yeah. You scheming?”

“Pretty much. I’ve been trying to find some new hobbies.” Sadie said, explaining as vaguely as possible.

Gwen shrugged, saying goodnight again and going to bed, glad to finally get some rest.

 

It was well into the morning when Max woke up, still hugging the blankets tightly. He knew right where he was when he woke up, and still he couldn’t believe it. He’d been so sure that that small house would be the death of him, and the idea that he’d escaped it safely for even one night felt unreal.

The room was filled with sunlight, lighting up all of Gwen’s posters and pinned up photos and index cards. _Doctor’s appointment 12/12,_ one read. _Counseling Tuesdays 6pm, Read ‘Fangirl’ (Sadie’s suggestion), Pick up Max Thursdays and Fridays._

He wrapped the comforter around him, creating a makeshift coat in the absence of his hoodie, needing some sort of armor as he looked into the hall.

The door next to his was closed, and next to that one he could see the bathroom door wide open and empty. On the other side of him, the kitchen opened up, and then just passed that he could see a girl with scarlet hair and tawny skin at the dining room table, focussed on her computer.

On the stove, he could see a square glass pan and a small folded note next to it. Approaching it, he could see a cake in the pan, chocolate with vanilla frosting, and a piece of it had been cut out and put onto a plate with a fork next to it. In chocolate frosting, someone had messily squeezed in the phrase,  _“Happy Belated Birthday, Max!”_

The note was placed note to the cake neatly, and Max opened it.

 _Good morning! Treat yourself_  
to some cake. Water & milk in  
the fridge, left a glass next to it.  
                              -Sadie

Max looked at the note for a moment, and looked back at the girl. She hadn’t even noticed he’d woken up, too concentrated on her work.

He was happy to take his cake and milk and retreat to Gwen’s room, hoping that this feathery feeling in his chest would become a more familiar one soon enough.


End file.
